


home is where the heart is

by SnowTheDemonFox



Series: TNPLH AU [3]
Category: 17776: What Football Will Look Like in the Future - Jon Bois, 20020: The Future of College Football - Jon Bois
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Rated T for swearing, Will add more tags as I go, title is a placeholder for now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 22:21:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28999683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowTheDemonFox/pseuds/SnowTheDemonFox
Summary: .so uhfootball?.Which game?.Not Game 27. Or any of those other incredibly dumb games..noi actually had something else in mindtrust meyoure gonna love it(sequel to my previous fic,'there's no place like home')
Series: TNPLH AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2000344
Comments: 20
Kudos: 15





	1. sleepyhead

-> ARCHIVE LOG: October 1st, 17798  
  


.hey dude do you think adding dogs to this game would be a good idea  
like  
theres just an entirely new team for dogs

  


.and where would their field be?

  


>.uhhhhhh

  


.you can't just add new rules to this game for fun. you have to think about this first.  
adding an entirely new team would ruin the point of this game, and we both know that we don't need anymore games that have been ruined for no good reason.  
  
.if you really want to make that a rule, create another game for that.

  


.since when did you care about whether a game was ruined or not

  


.i don’t.  
but if this game is ruined, you’ll end up asking me why i didn’t help.

  


.yknow what i wont argue with that  
but tbh thats actually a good idea. a brand new game, but all the players are dogs. first team to destroy all the footballs wins  
or something like that  
still workin on it

  


.you should stay focused on one game at a time.  
after all, you still have heaps of time to ruin football for humanity.

  


.what if all animals were allowed to join  
thatd add a lot more variety  
and you know not everyone is a dog person  
so itd get more attention

  


.is that just an excuse to let cats be in the game?

  


… would cats even want to play football? they just do nothing but sleep all day and complain about everything.

  


.wow sounds exactly like you

  


.shut up.

  


.i just think it would allow the game to get more attention  
more variety is a good thing isnt it  
there could even be an entire team of lizards or fish or seagulls or something  
have them all be on different teams, the dogs being one team and the cats being on another  
itd be like ‘Cats vs Dogs’ all over again

  


.you watched that movie?

  


.lol no  
heard they rebooted the franchise back in 14582 tho

  


.there was a-  
actually, no. i'm not going to ask.  
  
.so back to the game  
what's your plan? 

  


.bold of you to assume i have one  
im just making this up as i go

  


.are you going to tell the others?

  


.maybe  
maybe not  
havent decided

  


.ten’s not going to be happy when she finds out.

  


.oh i know that  
i mean  
its called a secret for a reason

  


* * *

  
-> CURRENT DAY: September 28th, 20020  
  


. …  
  
. …  
  
. …

  
[BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-]  
  


.I’M AWAKE.

  
[*click*]  
  


.I’m awake.  
  
.Nine? 

  


* * *

  
-> ARCHIVE LOG: July 12th, 17776  
  


(Are they awake?)

  


(They should be. Maybe give them a few minutes.)

  


(What about the others?)

  


(We’ll let them know that Nine is awake later. We don’t want them to be overwhelmed by multiple people trying to talk to them.)

  


(That’s probably a good idea.)  
  
...  
  
Nine, are you awake?

  


* * *

  
-> CURRENT DAY: September 28th, 20020  
  


. …  
no

  


.It’s 3 in the afternoon. 

  


.just 5 more minutes okay  
i’ll get up soon

  


.Okay.  
I’m gonna check on you in five minutes. You’d better be up.

  


.i know, i know

  


* * *

  


.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
. …  
  
.Juice?

  


.FUCK-  
  
.DAMNIT  
  
.TEN IVE TOLD YOU TO STOP SNEAKING UP ON ME LIKE THAT

  


.That time it wasn’t intentional.

  


.smfh yeah right

  


.you’ve been awake for 5 minutes and already managed to start an argument. congrats!

  


.hubble you are not part of this conversation

  


.i am now.  
where’s nine?

  


.They just woke up. 

  


.damn you guys rly slept in huh

  


.Not all of us are blessed with being able to use solar power.

  


.excuses excuses  
  
.anyway whats up  
you sleep well?

  


.I’m okay. I usually don’t need to sleep for long, anyway. 

  


.cool cool

  


.What have you two been up to?

  


.tv.

  


.tv

  


.You’ve done nothing but sit here and watch TV?

  


.correct.

  


.yeah

  


.I don’t know what else I expected.  
Where are Cleo and Alexis?

  


.cleos doing work so we’re not supposed to distract her  
and alexis is outside

  


.What day is it?

  


.september 28th.

  


.Thank you.

  


.is nine ok?

  


.They’re okay, I promise.  
Still a bit tired, but should be here any moment now.

  


. …

  


. …

  


. …

  


.Guys?

  


.eyyy there they are!!

  


.Hello.

  


.you still sound a bit tired.

  


.if you wanna go back to sleep its no big deal

  


.No, no. It’s okay.  
I just need a bit of time to fully wake up.

  


.lol sure whatever you say 

  


.so what’s the plan for today?

  


.I was going to ask you that question.

  


.tv

  


.You’re not watching TV for another 8 hours.  
Do something else for a change.

  


.and who put you in charge

  


.I’m the only mature person here, besides Nine.  
But they’re tired, so that makes me the one who makes the rules.

  


.What about Monopoly?

  


.no.

  


.We’re not playing Monopoly.

  


.Why not?

  


.because last time we played, SOMEONE decided to cheat by stealing everyone else’s money when they weren’t looking.

  


.i would never do such a thing

  


.We’re not having this argument again. 

  


.fine

  


. …

  


.so uh  
football?

  


.Which game?

  


.Not Game 27. Or any of those other incredibly dumb games.

  


.no  
i actually had something else in mind  
and trust me  
youre gonna love it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM BACK  
> and this has taken me a while to get the motivation to start but wow here we go  
> updates wont be as frequent compared to tnplh, but ill try not to abandon this fic <3  
> schools starting tomorrow so i thought posting this now would be ideal
> 
> as usual feel free to follow me on [tumblr](https://snowthedemonfox.tumblr.com/) bc i post art for this au (and 17776 in general) on there
> 
> and again, shoutout to @Threadzless for the work skin and to @FailedBroadcast for helping me set this up lol


	2. subtext

.now before i explain  
do you promise not to get mad at me

  


.No.

  


.i expected that 

  


.now you see for a while now ive been working on this small project of mine  
only one other person in this room knows about what it is 

  


.that would be me. 

  


.I’m listening.

  


.moving on  
  
.we all know football  
we all know how humanity loves creating these games that are somehow even more chaotic than the last  
  
.well  
  
.i had an idea

  


.Oh no.

  


.?

  


.i thought to myself  
shouldnt i also be able to create a game

  


.You didn’t.

  


.oh but i did

  


.with help. 

  


.ok i had a bit of help  
so its not entirely my fault  
but moving on

  


.I need to know everything.  
Now.  
Teams, rules, scoring, everything.

  


.calm down im getting to that  
  
.lets see  
where do i start

  


* * *

  
-> ARCHIVE LOG: August 15th, 17808  
  
[BEEP BEEP BEEP]  
  


.hm? 

  
[BEEP BEEP BEEP]  
  


.oh.  
j. it’s for you. 

  


.what  
who the hell is trying to call me at 5:29am

  


.someone, apparently. 

  


.fine  
  
.  
  
.hello

  


Hello?

  


.sup  
you need anything or

  


Is this the right number?  
… I’m calling about the sub-commissioner job.  
For the Bowl Game.

  


.OH

  


.what? 

  


.(think someones asking about being sub-commish)  
(that thing we talked about last month)

  


.well, what are you doing telling me that?  
you’re the one on the phone right now, not me. 

  


.(yeah ok shut up)  
  
.Nothing! Nothing.  
But yes, this is the right number. Sorry about the confusion.

  


What?

  


.did you seriously just change your voice for this- 

  


.(hubble shut up this is IMPORTANT)

  


So... what is there to this job? I can do anything.  
I’ve needed to find something to do for a long while now.

  


.It’s mainly watching over the Bowl Game, making sure players are following the rules, responding to calls and questions, alongside a few other things.  
  
.(i actually have no idea what im supposed to say)

  


.just tell them they got the job, i’ll handle the rest. 

  


.(okok)  
.But, uh- You’re in! 

  


It’s that easy?

  


. … Yes?

  


So what do I do now?

  


.(what do they do now)

  


.tell them they’ll get a message explaining everything later.  
it’s nearly 6am. 

  


.(ok good point)  
  
.We’ll send you a message when we can, explaining everything. 

  


Oh. Okay.  
Well, thank you.

  


.It’s no problem.  
  
.  
  
.well  
that just happened

  


.did you ask them for their name? 

  


. …  
shit i knew i forgot something

  


.nevermind.  
i can ask them later. 

  


* * *

  
-> ARCHIVE LOG: March 15th, 17999  
  


> hey nerd  
> u know that new bowl game every1s talking about

  


> I don’t watch sports  
> You know this

  


> smh get a hobby  
> anyway get this  
> they still havent found the guy who created the game  
> crazy right

  


> What

  


* * *

  


Did you hear about that new football game they started a couple hundred years ago? 

  


You know I don’t pay attention to sports.

  


Same here. Only heard about it now because Liam’s asking me if I know anything.  
Not sure why he’d ask me of all people about that.

  


Why is this one such a big deal? They come up with new football games all the time. It’s nothing special.

  


Apparently nobody can figure out who’s behind it. 

  


What do you mean, 'nobody can figure it out'? 

  


Nobody knows. 

  


I would’ve thought that you’d have to get these sorts of things approved first.  
Wouldn’t that require identification? Such as a name?

  


I’d assume that as well.  
But I guess whoever made this game used a fake name, and they never bothered to check it.  
Either that or they just don’t care.

  


They’ll figure it out one day.  
Or they could leave it as a mystery.  
Some people prefer to leave questions like this unanswered.

  


I guess only time will tell.

  


* * *

  
-> CURRENT DAY: September 28th, 20020  
  


. … and as for the teams  
theres more than only 3

  


.How many teams are in this game?

  


. …

  


.Juice. How many teams are there?

  


.theres 11

  


.That’s not that many.

  


.my mistake  
did i say eleven  
i meant one hundred and eleven

  


.OH  
GOD  
DAMN IT

  


.111 teams?

  


.oh no. here we go. 

  


.111 teams  
111 footballs  
111 fields  
this game is HUGE

  


.What is wrong with you?

  


.i find its useful to remember that im french

  


.How long have people been playing this game?

  


.a couple thousand years give or take

  


.A COUPLE THOUSAND?

  


.yea  
pretty cool huh

  


.What have you done?  
How does this game even work?

  


.it doesn't. 

  


.its a horrible mess of a game  
absolutely beautiful

  


.I need a break.  
I don’t have the processing power for this right now.

  


.Are you leaving?

  


.Yes.

  


.Oh.  
Okay.  
Goodbye.

  


.f

  


. …  
  
.i told you. you knew this would happen. 

  


.yeah i did  
lol

  


.When did this game start?

  


.around uhh  
17804 i think  
it was a while ago

  


.You kept it a secret this entire time? How?  
How do you even manage this game?

  


.im not constantly watching it  
like yeah im the commissioner but theres also sub-commissioners as well  
theyre usually the ones who take care of stuff when i cant  
  
.as for the keeping it a secret thing

  


.he never told anyone his name. 

  


.yea lol  
in my defense they never asked  
  
.anyways  
before you ask  
i did this cause i was bored  
and because i could  
  
.didnt tell anyone cause theres like three different people here that wouldve told me not to  
but i did it and nobody can stop me  
i have too much power

  


.whatever you say. 

  


.Can you tell me a bit more about this game?  
It sounds interesting.

  


.oh HELL YEA I CAN  
lets get this bread

  


.this is going to take a while. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heheheheheh  
> reveal time  
> anyway update: schools going well so far. i got homework tho  
> lol
> 
> remember to follow me on [tumblr](https://snowthedemonfox.tumblr.com/) if you have any questions about this au lol


	3. infinitesimal

-> ARCHIVE LOG: February 21st, 1269  
  


Lexi, people wouldn’t know what happened, and I highly doubt they would believe either of us if we tried to explain.  
For all we know, they could think that they’re some kind of AI that’s out to kill everyone alive, they could be hurt.   
They’re not immortal like us. They could still die. People could still hurt them.   
They’ve only now been given a chance to live, and they could lose it as quickly as they got it.  
  
We have to do something. We can’t risk fucking this up.   


What do you think we should do?   


I- I don’t know.   
Is this even the right thing to do? What if we’ve fucked up already? What do we do? How are we supposed to explain ourselves?   


. . .  
  
We’ll figure something out.   


* * *

  
-> CURRENT DAY: September 28th, 20020  
  


.and thats pretty much everything  
game’s set up to last a pretty long time, so we gotta have people watching over stuff 24/7 in case something happens   


.we don’t want a repeat of what happened in 19636.   


.What happened?   


.one of the players was able to go off field for longer than the obt allowed  
since none of the sub-commissioners were watching at the time  
nobody noticed  
so he managed to get away with it until we had another team call and tell us what had happened  
  
.although tbh we wouldve found out anyway cause he was carrying a football and we can track those at all times   


.since then, we’ve adjusted the overall schedule of which commissioners watch the game at which times, so there’s always someone keeping an eye on what’s happening.   


.yeah   


.Does that include you guys?   


.sometimes it does  
since im the one who created this game in the first place i gotta make sure to keep an eye on things  
got a smaller team of like 2 other sub commissioners who help me out with that, they watch over things and answer calls when i cant  
  
.speaking of sub-commissioners  
hold on  
i got a call  
  
.Hello?   


.yo dude check it out. there’s an update on the dogs here  
tara andddd.... sandy i think? sorry i’m bad with names   


.oh shit its you!  
but uh  
yeah thats their names  
whats happening   
i gotta know dude   


.okok SO  
tara was being a lil shit right? she comes right up to the player all nice like and cowing down like a dog does when you go up to pet it  
and right as the player bends over she jolts up, goes in between the ball holder’s legs, boops the ball out of their forearm and catches it in the jaws in the same motion and she just makes the maddest break behind the player  
she’s currentlyyyy..... i wanna say 300 yards away by this point. ain’t no way the player is going to catch her lmaoooo   


.holy shit lmao  
i knew allowing them to play in this game was a great idea  
what about sandy  
any updates on her   


.mmmmmm yah  
sandy is currently napping on the job. lol  
she’s in some sort of forest, stretched out in a sunbeam but she ALSO has a ball with her as well  
leave it to a dog to manage to find a comfortable enough position while also keeping a ball from touching the ground hehehe  
currently the opposing team cannot find her because the forest is pretty well into the field. real thick foliage and easy to get lost in, but with her sniffer and can practically avoid all of that and follow her trail back   


.at this point im honestly surprised that no other teams have asked about having dogs on their teams  
like  
they can do that  
and yet nobody else has asked   


.shhhhh maybe they don’t know  
  
.i think it would be funny as hell if we keep quiet abt it for as long as possible because the reveal would be like  
“Why the hell didn’t you tell us about this??”  
because you didn’t ask  
dumbass  
lol   


.exactly  
i mean to be fair i did mention it at least once but i guess nobody was paying attention  
hell  
even got the official rules updated just for this  
so theres no excuse for not knowing   


.mmmhmm  
OH SHIT HEHEH i need to go lol i just thought of teh BEST prank call idea see ya   


.cya dude good luck with the prank call lol  
  
.   


. … Uh.  
Who was that?   


.just one of the sub-commissioners  
its fine  
just giving me an update  
  
.anyways back to the point  
any other questions you got   


.What about Hubble?   


.what do u mean   


.Is Hubble involved with watching the game?   


.hubble technically isnt part of the game   
like yeah  
he helped me with the planning and everything  
but hes not actually involved with anything else cause im the one who took all the credit   


.i didn’t want to be a major part of this. so i help out behind the scenes. none of the sub-commissioners even know i’m helping.   


.But I thought nobody knew who created this game?   


.hahaaaa yeahhhh about that  
theres actually something written down for the name of the creator but do u really think i was gonna use my full name   


.So what did you write for the name?   


.j  
lmao  
nobody would even know it was me  
its just one letter  
  
.anyways  
10s been gone for a while huh   


.she’ll be back soon.   


.place your bets guys whats the first thing shes gonna say when she does get back   


.probably start yelling at you about how ‘stupid’ and ‘chaotic’ this game is.   


.yeah i can see that  
nine?   


.Uh… I’m not sure.   


.lol  
  
. …  
  
.maybe i should go and see if shes ok  
besides if she does end up yelling at me over this, yall wont have to listen to that  
i know nine doesnt like sudden loud noises  
so its probably a good idea   
  
.i dunno   


* * *

  


.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
.hey ten  
uh  
sorry if  
ur still mad me over the game   


.I’m not mad.   
I was just annoyed.   
You spent years creating this game, and didn’t tell anyone else besides Hubble?   


.well i knew that if i had told u, you wouldve tried to stop me   


.A game like this needs to be well thought out. There needs to be a plan. You have to consider all parties involved.   


.i mean like  
its not like im making people play this game  
they can do what they want   


.I know, I know.  
I feel bad about the way I reacted. I know this game means a lot to you.   


.its fine, honestly  
im not mad at you or anythin  
kinda expected that reaction so its no big deal   


.If you’re sure.  
… I missed the sunrise today.   


.yeah  
you and nine slept in   


.I know I see it almost everyday, but I still feel bad that I missed it.   


.dont worry bout it  
suns still gonna be there tomorrow  
and the day after that  
and the day after that  
and the day aft-   


.Juice.   


.okok ill stop   


.Thank you.   


.nine and hubble are waiting for you  
u wanna head back?   


.Well, it’d be rude to keep them waiting.  
You’re going to have to catch me up on what I missed, though.   


.lol sure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM BACK   
> AGAIN  
> school is a pain  
> anyway uhh  
> ty for reading :D
> 
> chip belongs to [FailedBroadcast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FailedBroadcast/pseuds/FailedBroadcast)  
> so shoutout to them for letting me include them here lol
> 
> im planning on rewriting tnplh before 20021 is released so keep an eye out for that
> 
> and uhh as always remember to follow me on [tumblr](https://snowthedemonfox.tumblr.com/) if u wanna


End file.
